The starship patrol craft “Galalend” is ready for launch. The pilot plots the course, the ship’s doctor makes snide jokes—everything is going as usual. But the captain is suddenly arrested: Reyer Macnell is accused of murdering his own wife. The evidence is undeniable; the sentence is ruthless—forty years of imprisonment. The captain has to take the investigation into his own hands: after escaping from prison and from the planet, he picks up the trail.
Only, the search for the wife’s killer yields an unexpected result. It turns out that the committed crime is just the tip of the iceberg, and the existence of an entire planet is at stake. Can a man and a woman protect the New Earth—especially if both have strong reasons to hate it? Will a motley team formed by chance work together? And what will win: cold calculation or love?